Lonely Edmonton senior bilked out of $175K by fraudster who claimed to work for Microsoft

EDMONTON — Edmonton police are warning computer owners to be on alert for a scam involving people claiming to be from Microsoft’s technical support department.

An 84-year-old Edmonton senior has lost $175,000 over two years to the sophisticated fraudsters, who have shown no remorse at taking advantage of vulnerable people, Det. Bill Allen of the Economic Crimes Unit said Tuesday.

“His contact with them was probably daily,” Allen said. “He trusted them and he was told who not to trust so they could keep it going as long as they could.”

The victim in the case has lived alone for much of his life and has no close relatives in town, Allen said.

About two years ago, he took a phone call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, who informed the senior he had a virus on his computer that could be fixed for $200.

He was lonely. His whole day revolved around these phone calls

The senior provided the numbers to his credit card, which was charged for $600. When the victim later noticed the problem on his credit card statement, he contacted the people he believed to be from Microsoft to get a refund.

That’s when the fraudsters started to befriend the man, telling him they would send a document explaining how to get his refund, but that they first needed him to wire more money.

Allen said they kept the man on the hook like this over a long period of time, convincing him to continually send more wire transfers on the promise that the document would arrive. When family and police tried to intervene, the senior started hiding his interactions with the fraudsters, who even gave him code words to use when answering the phone.

The victim eventually became so obsessed with receiving the document that he refused to attend family functions or take a shower during the day, out of fear he would miss the delivery.

“He was lonely. His whole day revolved around these phone calls,” Allen said. “Whenever he ran into a stumbling block in the whole scheme, they would give him instructions on how to get around those stumbling blocks.

“These people have this guy totally under their control. Even to this day, he feels I interfered with his document. He wasn’t understanding that he was being deceived and there was not going to be a refund, and it didn’t matter if he sent $100,000.”

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Allen said it is believed the fraudsters are operating out of India. He said Western Union has shut down many of its wire transfer outlets in that country that were being used excessively to receive ill-gotten money.

Seniors are particularly vulnerable to such scams, in part because they may not have a strong grasp of computer technology, and in part because they can be very trusting, Allen said. Many are also afraid to admit to relatives they have been deceived, as it may convince relatives they can no longer live independently.